Camshaft Bearing Caps don't match

Hello!
My name is Tim, im currently 17 years old and i purchased a 3.4 V6 Automatic 2003 Toyota Tacoma SR5 PreRunner in the beginning of this summer as my first car, i've been working on it almost everyday with my dad, it had a problem with a cylinder so we took heads off, cleaned the block, got the heads clean and now we got in a struggle of putting camshaft bearing caps back, we might have messed them up, not going to lie. The book manual for my year tacoma shows only left side head, which we got correctly placed (as far as i know), they must be inverted as i know but we can't get them all matching, has anyone faced a same issue or anyone knows a correct order from them?

Any sort of information would be really helpful, it's september already and i need to drive to school. Thank you for your attention!

Here is some visual understanding of it:
The last picture is the head im facing issues with

 

Did you put the cam bearing caps back exactly where they were? Each one goes in a specific spot just like connecting rod caps. That looks like the reason that the bolts are not going down correctly

 

We got the caps mixed up after we took the heads off

 

OK well that’s your problem those caps need to go back exactly where they were and the only way that’s going to happen is if you take them all off and stick them back on until each one goes on all the way but you have to hit the bolts slowly Or you can really screw those cams up.or you can really screw those cams up. It doesn’t look like it’s that bad right now so I would just take them all off and redo them until each one goes down correctly

 

On the driver side, do the numbers Of camshafts go in descending order? Maybe I asked the question wrongly but that’s what I need help with

 

To be honest I’m not sure because I work on GM vehicles.To be honest I’m not sure because I work on GM vehicles. But you can’t get it wrong if you take them all off and make sure each Goes on all the way.but you can’t get it wrong if you take them all off and make sure each Goes on all the way. As long as each one seats correctly all the way down on the cam then you’re golden

 

Sorry using talk to text and it keeps adding the sentences twice

 

The arrow on my left head points towards the timing belt, but the right one points towards the cabin, so I don’t know where the arrows on the right should point, I asked toyota and they said all camshaft bearing caps have to face the timing belt

 

So in that case I would take them all off and put each cam bearing cap on with the arrow facing the timing side like they said.

 

That’s the exact problem, they don’t fit the order, I suspect that I got two passenger side heads at the heads cleaning shop

 

And does that engine use timing chains? I hope you’re not confusing the timing belt with the serpentine belt

 

I really hope not but again I’m not 100% sure about Toyota engines

 

No, it is a timing belt, the real rubber timing belt, and Toyota specifically said that both heads should have a arrow pointing towards the timing belt which is in the front of a vehicle, and i have a left head pointing the timing belt as it should, and the right one pointing the cabin

 

Then it really sounds like your theory might be real

 

I've never heard that to happen to anyone, what are the chanses of my heads getting mixed up at the shop? The owner is a old guy who cleans heads by himself all day long, that might honestly be a non-fiction if he agrees to my theory when i call him tomorrow, i really appreciate the effort in helping me to solve this, this puzzle has tortured my head for couple months now

 

The castings for the DS and PS heads on the 5VZ-FE are the same. There is only one P/N for it. If there is an arrow on one head facing the front, it will be facing the back on the other head.

Is it possible that you have the cams on the right sides but put the heads on the wrong sides? eg you put the head that used to be on the left on the right and vise versa but the cams are on the original sides. If so, you will need to pull the heads and swap them with new head gaskets and bolts. - You can't just swap the cams over because they will be backwards to how they were in the opposite heads.

 

Also the obvious - Assuming you have the two dots on the intake cam aligned with the two dots on the exhaust cam while trying to do this?

 

camshaft bearing caps match the arrow on the head. The heads are of the same casing just flipped around so you have 50% of the caps turned around. The drivers ones are wrong.

This is everything I know about how my stock caps were. Ex: DI4vL intake cap 4 pointing down (toward the timing belt) D and L are cast letters on the caps. My videos and photos were not good enough to show all of these.

Example photo is of the drivers side cams above the front most cylinder (2)



Note: It is important that you get the camshafts together correctly (dot to dot) and that one of them is 180* from in time when installing the caps so that there is no force exerted from the valves on the caps. Double check which one this is but after the caps are installed you have to turn this camshaft back into time.

 

For future reference, mark them before you remove them. That's what works for me. Also, take a pic before you disassemble. Good luck.

 

My sentiments exactly. Always take several high quality pictures before removing anything critical or position-based.